MotoGP

TEAM SUZUKI ECSTAR 12TH AND 23RD IN A TRICKY, RAINY DAY

Team Suzuki Press Office – April 8.

Andrea Iannone: 12th - 1'50.725
Alex Rins: 23rd - 1'52.340

Tricky weather conditions at the Termas de Rio Hondo circuit affected the qualifying day for Team SUZUKI ECSTAR, with both Andrea Iannone and Alex Rins struggling to find the right touch with their GSX-RR in the rain and ended up in 12th and 23rd position respectively.

The 1'40.250 posted yesterday by Andrea Iannone allowed him to advance directly to Q2, as none of the riders managed to improve on their performances in this morning’s FP3 enough to steal his tenth place slot. The rain came right before the beginning of FP4, thus allowing the crew to try their first wet setup, but the tricky conditions of the track were a gamble for Iannone: an attempt with the slick tyres unfortunately proved not to be the best option, and later there was not enough time left to make many laps with the wet tyres, resulting in his best lap of 1'50.725, the 12th of the pack.

This first go with a MotoGP machine in wet conditions was tricky for Alex Rins as well. His injury to the right ankle affected his performance, and the feeling with the bike in such difficult conditions could still be improved. Not being in top condition, he couldn’t do better than 1’52.340, and he will start tomorrow from the last row in the grid.

Davide Brivio – Team Manager
“This has been a very hard and complicated day for us, as both riders are new, we still lack experience with them in wet conditions. Alex was in even worse condition, due to his inexperience on a wet track with a MotoGP and due to his injury as well, so it was really hard for him. With Andrea in Q2, at some point we thought the track could get dry, at least in the main line, and we tried a run with slick tyres, but we took a risk that in this case didn’t pay off. In hindsight, we have lost some time that could have been useful to find a better feel with the bike to do a more effective time attack. We also have room for improvement in the finalization of the bikes’ setup for the wet conditions, and better adjust them according the riders needs.”

Andrea Iannone
“It’s been a hard day for us, we are struggling, I weren´t able to be as fast as I’d like. I try to push, but I can feel many problems, and I don’t have the needed confidence. Especially in the front, when I brake hard I feel unstable. We have to work hard to understand where the problem is that prevents me from being fast. I feel the tyres moving both in the front and in the rear, and also the rear spins when the bike picks up, meaning that the electronics have a lot to improve on. It’s an overall problem that gets amplified on the wet track. In dry conditions we are not so bad because the problems are more limited, and I believe we could have a good race tomorrow, if the weather were dry. Yesterday we had some ideas for a better setup that could give me a better touch with the bike, but unfortunately we couldn’t try it today, so let’s hope for a dry warmup and to find out if this intuition we had will be effective.”

Alex Rins
“Today due to my physical condition and the tricky weather it was a very complicated Q1. In FP4 I felt good and I took it easy, to get a good feel with the bike in wet conditions, which we had never experienced before. But in Q1 I did not feel comfortable with the bike at all. I have not been able to improve on my times from the previous session. It cost me a lot in the accelerations, and to be honest my physical condition did not help either. Tomorrow we will take advantage of the race to continue learning, because it is in the race where we can gain more experience in this new category.”